Meissonier, his life and his art . eel that my friendship is dead. How sad it is thatour latter-day intelligenceshould be so common-place ! Do you think thestandard was ever so lowbefore ? Certain centu-ries, of course, have beenmore ignorant, more bar-barous, more absurd ! Butthis was atoned for bythe occasional appearanceof some mighty nowadays the gen-eral level seems to befalling to the lowest pos-sible depth. ^I do not think I shallever be accused of hav-ing been unconscientious,of having disregardedsound advice, of havingfailed to follow indefatigably alter the best. I know
Meissonier, his life and his art . eel that my friendship is dead. How sad it is thatour latter-day intelligenceshould be so common-place ! Do you think thestandard was ever so lowbefore ? Certain centu-ries, of course, have beenmore ignorant, more bar-barous, more absurd ! Butthis was atoned for bythe occasional appearanceof some mighty nowadays the gen-eral level seems to befalling to the lowest pos-sible depth. ^I do not think I shallever be accused of hav-ing been unconscientious,of having disregardedsound advice, of havingfailed to follow indefatigably alter the best. I know people who declare that they are indifferent to the judgmentof others, that they are insensible to criticism. This is true artist cannot but feel the prick of the goad. When aman has put all his soul and strength into a work, it must always hurthim to see it misunderstood and decried by a Hippant journalist. In these days such an artist dreads the public verdict on his workmore than the judgment of a THE AMATEUKS. (M. Maximilien Beyers collection.) MAN 129 Very often, the so-called intelligent appreciation of the critic is dueto some chance meeting. The artist was gracious to the amateur orjournalist, and straightway becomes a fetish ! He is discovered,understood ! The average reader buys his opinions in the daily paper whichpublishes critical notices. Those who feel and appreciate for them-selves are few and far between nowadays. In the time of Michel-angelo and Raphael, artists worked for thevt, thinking of what theirjudgments would be ! Now we must work for the Press, and thesubscribers to morning papers ! . . You speak of the tendency of the lectures you have been attending,of the theory that certain great men are dangerous. . Such anidea, and the moral deduced from it, are a fatal sign of the deca-dence of this epoch. . Such minds would lead us to an intellectualBeauce, to that uniform flat expanse to which all the world willcrowd, when the
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